Staph infection closes downtown courtroom

San Diego  A downtown courtroom was closed for several hours Tuesday when it was learned that a sheriff’s deputy assigned there contracted a serious bacterial infection on her foot, authorities said.

The bailiff has a small patch of MRSA on her foot, which is a strain of staph bacteria that is highly resistant to antibiotics and is generally spread through skin-to-skin contact.

Department 3, which handles misdemeanors, was closed for about five hours while the courtroom was sanitized. The closure was done as a precaution, said sheriff’s spokeswoman Jan Caldwell.

All proceedings were moved to Department 16.

Karen Dalton, spokeswoman for the San Diego Superior Court, said the Sheriff’s Department cleaned the courtroom Friday. She said the court learned of the infection Tuesday morning and cleaned the courtroom again “out of an abundance of caution.”